Out Today! A new album by the one and only James Lee Redmond…

Free download at Quixodelic Records here:

http://quixodelic.com/site/category/james-redmond/

Listen to ‘Weekend Train’:

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Every generation needs its heroes. Most of mine were doing their thing half a century ago, forging melodies, splashing paint, and building mad roads of word. It is a rare thing indeed to be able to call one of your peers a genuine hero, but for me, James Redmond is exactly that. It feels like half a century has passed since I was first pointed in the direction of Dirty Ticket with their tongue-in-cheek two-minute synth-pop song brand of musical anarchy, and tracks like ‘Sticker Book’ and ‘Inner Disco’ have happily haunted every ‘Best of…’ mix I’ve made since 2007. Since then, it’s been an honour to have played Florence to solo songs like ‘Talk’ and ‘Movin On’ (arguably my favourite song from the Quixodelic catalogue), songs that came perilously close to never quite making it out into the public domain. In fact, the gradual metamorphosis from melodic anarchist to a mature songwriter crafting lo-fi anthems has been apparent for anyone paying attention to the last two albums. ‘Lo-fi’ is perhaps misleading – self-produced, yes, but these songs have always transported me well beyond the boundaries of how they were recorded whenever I put the headphones on. These songs are placeless, and inevitably also timeless.

A hard man to reach at the best and worst of times, to suddenly hear Jay talking excitedly about a third record called ’3′ (haha), with a couple of studio recorded tracks and an actual running order was a really good sign of things to come. There aren’t enough superlatives I can throw at ’3′. Like a long lost record from your Grandad’s dusty vinyl collection, it is seeped in the tradition of 60s Mersey Beat, with elements of pop, folk, soul, and blues all coming together in the shape of shining pop songs. It’s a K.O in the first round of a record, an injury time winner when you’re down to ten men and even the most devoted fans have all but given up hope, a quite staggering masterclass on how to write perfect pop, heavy on emotion and light on its feet, with harmonies and melodies you feel like you must have heard somewhere before, but deep down know that you haven’t.

There are a couple of familiar tracks – a stellar reworked version of the impeccable ‘Will She Meet Me?’, the haunting grandness of ‘Tell Me’ (does anyone else make the self-recorded intimate confession song sound so BIG?), but everything else is brand spanking new. The real hits of the record include ‘Weekend Train’ (a song that sounds like it was stolen from the ‘Rubber Soul’ sessions), the ukulele-led brilliant closing nostalgia of ‘Lonely World’, and the epic ‘Sad Song’ with heartfelt lines like ‘Major to minor/The smiles turns to tears/I say goodbye to those years’. Threads of loneliness, regret, and making mistakes run through the blood of this record, but in the quiet, melodic contemplation it also sounds like a cathartic attempt at putting the past to bed, holding your hand up, and starting over. Fans of synth-pop anarchy might be disappointed at the lack of bones they are being thrown, but for the rest of us, ’3′ runs much deeper than the small-hours drank-too-much and smoked-a-load medley’s that have gone before. Here the ghosts of Brian Wilson, John Lennon, and David Bowie shuffle in the wings while someone sings their heart out, like from time to time every one of your heroes has to.

3 stars out of 3 from Florence.

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Find out more about James Redmond at:

www.myspace.com/jamesleeredmond

CATEGORIES:JAMES REDMOND, QUIXODELIC RECORDS, RELEASES, REVIEWS